This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features the second part of a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits and stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. The subject of this week’s episode is Latvian grandmaster Mikhail Tal.

With his fierce attacking style, “The Magician from Riga” dethroned reigning World Champion Botvinnik to claim the World Chess Championship in 1960. Widely acclaimed as a genius, Mischa’s tactical play would produce numerous brilliancies, as well as a 95-game unbeaten streak, a record that would stand for over forty years.

Narrated by professional voice actor Nick Murphy, this week’s episode about Mikhail Tal is different from the two-part “My Misha” series from May of this year. Instead of an active participant, Genna is more of a background figure this time. However, this does not make his retelling of Tal’s stories any less vivid.

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits and stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. The subject of this week’s episode is Latvian grandmaster Mikhail Tal.

With his fierce attacking style, “The Magician from Riga” dethroned reigning World Champion Botvinnik to claim the World Chess Championship in 1960. Widely acclaimed as a genius, Mischa’s tactical play would produce numerous brilliancies, as well as a 95-game unbeaten streak, a record that would stand for over forty years.

Narrated by professional voice actor Nick Murphy, this week’s episode about Mikhail Tal is different from the two-part “My Misha” series from May of this year. Instead of an active participant, Genna is more of a background figure this time. However, this does not make his retelling of Tal’s stories any less vivid.

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Russian grandmaster Daniil Dubov.

Daniil, currently rated 2693, earned the grandmaster title in 2011, a few weeks before he turned 15. His biggest success to date was his win in the Rapid World Championship of 2018, ahead of Carlsen, Mamedyarov and Nakamura. Daniil is not only a perfect guest because of his perceptive views and thoughts on chess, but also because of the fact that on two occasions he was one of Magnus Carlsen’s seconds in a world championship match: in 2018, when Carlsen defeated Caruana in London, and in 2021, when Carlsen defeated Nepomniachtchi in Dubai.

With five classical games to go, the World Championship match between Ding Liren and Gukesh D is tied at 4.5-4.5, and Daniil has followed the event closely. Remarkably, Daniil is not surprised at all that Ding Liren is playing much better than the pundits feared and he explains why. Interviewed by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam immediately after the draw in Game 9, Daniil gives his take on what we’ve seen so far and what we can expect from the remaining games between Ding and Gukesh. He also shares memories and behind-the-scenes stories of the matches when he worked for Magnus Carlsen, and gives a sharp analysis of how the current world championship cycle is an economically bad idea for most chess professionals. In short, an episode you should not miss!

0:00 – Intro

1:30 – Welcome Daniil!

1:59 – Is Daniil surprised by the turn of events in the World Championship match between Ding and Gukesh?

5:36 – Daniil’s recollection of Ding’s world title victory against Nepomniachtchi last year

8:00 – Ding’s mental health issues

11:40 – The difference between a match and a tournament

14:27 – What is Daniil’s take on Magnus’s statement that the world title should not be decided in a classical match format?

17:20 – Will a 2800-player be able to maintain his rating in open tournaments?

19:50 – Ding’s current level and overall playing style compared to Gukesh and Magnus

25:02 – AD BREAK

26:00 – The Chinese and Indian ways of playing chess

29:50 – The Indian way of “learning through playing” as opposed to learning from chess books

31:13 – Why do Ding and Gukesh have guys like Rapport and Gajewski on their respective teams?

33:04 – Daniil’s experience coming up as a player in an era where engines where not as strong as they are now

37:24 – Daniil’s experience working with Magnus

40:55 – Does Magnus display the same “clarity” in his play that Fischer demonstrated?

42:52 – Why a modern coach should do more than just present lines

47:00 – How did Daniil befriend Magnus, and Magnus’s sense of humour

50:50 – AD BREAK

51:29 – Friendships among chess teams

55:59 – The Balenciaga sweater

57:36 – What is Daniil’s prediction for the rest of the World Championship?

1:02:22 – Why Daniil finds it “weird” to see top players like Magnus and Hikaru doing daily recaps of the World Championship match

1:06:34 – Liverpool vs Manchester City and Daniil’s love of other sports

1:08:28 – Weird press conference questions

1:13:53 – Should the World Championship match continue to exist in its current format?

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. Subject of this week’s episode is Dutch grandmaster Max Euwe (1901-1981). This is the third part of Sosonko’s series on Euwe; Part 1 was covered in our October 19 episode, Part 2 on November 8.

Machgielis “Max” Euwe was a chess grandmaster, mathematician, author and administrator, who became the fifth World Chess Champion in 1935, when he defeated Alexander Alekhine. After losing the title two years later, he would continue to play with the world’s best for many more years before retiring in 1953. After retiring as a player, he would later serve as FIDE president starting in 1970. In this capacity, he presided over the famous Fischer-Spassky of 1972 and had to navigate many other chess “situations” of the time, such as the defection of Viktor Korchnoi from the USSR and attempts by Soviet officials to remove him from power.

Genna, a fellow native of The Netherlands, met Max Euwe around the time of the 1972 World Championship match, and the two remained in touch until Euwe’s death in 1981. When Viktor Korchnoi enlisted Euwe’s help in applying for political asylum in The Netherlands in 1976, Genna facilitated communications between the two chess greats. Over four decades later, Genna’s story paints a picture of Max Euwe as both a friend and a historical chess figure.

Max Euwe, for all of his chess accomplishments on- and off the board, was a man with many hobbies. A “workaholic” before that term existed, he made sure to meticulously schedule his day so as to leave time, but not too much time, for activities such as music and table tennis. As his wife Caroline recalled: “He hated disorder more than anything in the world.” In this third and final part of the Euwe narration, we learn more about the man behind the legendary administrator and player that is Max Euwe.

Enjoy this week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast!

"The Essential Sosonko" is available for purchase on the New In Chess website: https://www.newinchess.com/the-essential-sosonko-hardcover 

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Indian grandmaster Swayams Mishra.

At the young age of 32, Swayams is already a decorated chess coach, having worked with the Indian national team for several years and coaching their women’s team to gold at this year’s Olympiad. His private coaching practice has also been successful: this year, his mentee Shreyas Royal became the youngest grandmaster in British history.

Interviewed by Jacob Aagaard, Swayams talks about his transition from player to coach, shares his experience with the Indian women's team, and gives three pieces of advice for ambitious players of all levels!

0:00 – Intro

1:54 – Welcome Swayams!

3:55 – Where Swayams and Jacob first met

5:03 – Does Sam Shankland troll Swayams’s online sessions?

5:48 – Jacob tells a (non-child-friendly) Stany story

7:31 – What was Swayams’s role in the Indian’s women’s team at this year’s Olympiad?

9:02 – Swayams explains the difference between coaching men versus women

10:18 – AD BREAK

11:00 – How do Swayams’s days look when his pupils are playing big tournaments?

13:03 – To what does Swayams attribute the current Indian chess boom?

16:17 – Swayams stresses how universally popular chess is and predicts its possible inclusion in future Olympic games

19:30 – The role of petroleum companies in sponsoring Indian chess

21:53 – Swayams’s success coaching Shreyas Royal, who became the youngest British grandmaster in history; multiple-time Indian Women’s Champion Padmini Rout; and Ethan Vaz, a young talent who Swayams regards as the future of Indian chess

24:39 – AD BREAK

25:37 – Swayams gives three pieces of advice for an ambitious chess player trying to improve

28:56 – Outro

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Danish grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen.

Peter is a five-time Danish chess champion, but is primarily known for his highly successful coaching career. From 2007 till 2023, he was continuously coaching the reigning World Champion, working first for Vishy Anand and later for Magnus Carlsen. In this capacity, he was a winning coach in a world championship match a record eight times.

As always, this year’s world title match, which takes place in Singapore between November 25th and December 13th, is eagerly awaited. At the same time, the reigning champion’s lacklustre recent results keep confusing the experts. Ding Liren has dropped to 22nd place in the world rankings and only seems a shadow of the great Ding that not that long ago was the second player in the world behind Magnus Carlsen. In stark contrast, Gukesh has been going from strength to strength. After winning the Candidates tournament in Toronto earlier this year, he led India to gold at the Olympiad in Budapest with a stellar performance on first board.

Interviewed by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Peter Heine Nielsen assesses the situation at the start of the match, analyzing Gukesh’s strengths and possible weaknesses and looking for glimpses of hope for Ding Liren.

0:00 – Intro

2:05 – What is Peter expecting from this year’s world championship match?

3:33 – Ding’s physical and mental state

8:40 – Ding’s deterioration over the past year, winning 3 out of 49 classical games

13:47 – Comparing Gukesh’s rise to the rises of Kasparov and Carlsen

16:50 – Ding’s strong competitive mindset, despite his mental health issues

21:02 – AD BREAK

21:35 – How should Ding’s team aid him in his preparation for Singapore?

25:59 – Ding’s friendship with Richard Rapport

31:53 – What will be the role of computer preparation in this match?

37:00 – Could Gukesh’s confidence be his downfall?

40:30 – Could Ding be exaggerating his symptoms to make Gukesh underestimate him?

43:00 – AD BREAK

44:00 – Kasparov’s assertion that this is “not a world championship match at all”

50:22 – Peter’s love of freestyle chess, also known as Chess960 and Fischerandom

56:48 – Developments in chess in China and India

1:06:20 – So, what is Peter’s prediction for the match?

1:09:17 - Outro 

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. This week features the second part of Genna’s story about Dutch grandmaster Max Euwe (1901-1981).

Machgielis “Max” Euwe was the fifth World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. After retiring as a player, he would later serve as FIDE president starting in 1970. In this capacity, he presided over the famous Fischer-Spassky of 1972 and had to navigate many other chess “situations” of the time, such as the defection of Viktor Korchnoi from the USSR and attempts by Soviet officials to remove him from power.

Genna, a fellow native of The Netherlands, met Max Euwe around the time of the 1972 World Championship match, and the two remained in touch until Euwe’s death in 1981. Genna’s story paints a picture of Max Euwe as a player, friend and historical chess figure all at once. Three weeks ago, Part 1 of Euwe’s story focused on his later career as a chess administrator, including the 1972 World Championship match. This week, Genna delves into Max Euwe, the chess player. 

A hardcopy of "The Essential Sosonko" is available for purchase on the New In Chess website: https://www.newinchess.com/the-essential-sosonko 

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with French grandmaster Joel Lautier.

Joel has had a rich chess career: he became the youngest Junior World Champion in history in 1988, holds a lifetime positive score against Garry Kasparov and is, along with Vasily Ivanchuk, the only grandmaster of his generation to have defeated all world champions of his time: Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Khalifman, Anand, Ponomariov, Kasimdzhanov and Topalov. He was also one of Kramnik’s seconds when the Russion sensationally defeated Kasparov for the world title in 2000. Despite his successful chess career, Joel came to the conclusion that he was hungry for new challenges and opted for a career change, going into investment banking.

In a lively conversation with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Lautier speaks about his chess career as well as his career as an investment banker, including the shocking moment in 2022 when the US State Department unjustly put him on the sanctions list after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a dramatic and painful error that was corrected about a year later.

0:00 – Intro

2:10 – Welcome Joel!

3:05 – Becoming the youngest Junior World Champion in history in 1988

4:24 – Meeting his great influence, Bobby Fischer, in 1992

8:52 – Realising upon meeting Fischer that he did not want to remain in chess forever

10:42 – Dropping out of school at 16 to pursue chess, Joel’s father’s influence

13:05 – Joel’s experience being coached by Lev Polugaevsky

16:25 – Joel’s positive score against Kasparov

20:41 – Joel’s spectacular three-queen game against Kasparov

23:49 – The legendary Linnares 1994 tournament

26:23 – AD BREAK

27:02 – Joel’s victory over Kasparov in Amsterdam 1995

33:16 – Joel’s experience as a second for Kramnik in 2000

40:18 – The evening of Kramnik’s victory

42:17 – Joel’s visit to Fischer with Spasski in 1992

47:01 – The start of Joel’s business career and move to Russia

52:48 – AD BREAK

53:47 – Continued business career and eventual move to Barcelona

59:53 – Being incorrectly put on (and later taken off) an American sanctions list after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022

1:06:49 – AD BREAK

1:07:42 – Will Joel be compensated by the American government for their mistake?

1:08:09 – Joel’s talented 13-year old daughter Naomi, whose paintings are displayed at various exhibitions in Europe

1:14:26 – Outro

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with Dutch grandmaster Loek van Wely. Loek was the captain of the winning team, the Triveni Continental Kings, at the recent Tech Mahindra Global Chess League in London.

Loek van Wely can look back on a rich career as a player. He won the Dutch championship 8 times and had his career peak in 2001, when he made it to the world top 10 with a rating of 2714. Besides his achievements on the chess board, Loek is a renowned coach, who has worked with stars like Gata Kamsky, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov. In more recent years he’s been coaching the Italian national team and Dutch grandmaster Max Warmerdam.

If you are new to the Global Chess League, Loek will fill you in as he speaks about the strategies, the players that made the difference and the pros and cons of the remarkable time control (20 minutes per player per game, no increment) that almost inevitably led to wild time scrambles. In a lively conversation with Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Loek talks about the innovative format of the Global Chess League and the impact it may have on the chess world. In passing he reveals his ambitions as a coach and gives his take on Vladimir Kramnik’s anti-cheating crusade that continues to fuel heated and widespread discussions online.

0:00 – Intro

2:59 – Loek explains how the Global Chess League works

6:00 – Is there a limit to every team’s financial means?

7:18 – Magnus and Ding’s participation

8:58 – Wei Yi’s participation in Loek’s team and the “point system”

13:43 – How does Loek deal with situations where teammates have strained

relationships, such as between Alexandra Kosteniuk and Valentina Gunina?

17:29 – AD BREAK

18:27 – The format and length of the event

20:27 – The controversial 20+0 time control and Alireza Firouzja’s performance

24:10 – Does the Global Chess League change the chess world?

26:38 – Are the organisers happy with the way the Global Chess League has taken off?

28:27 – What considerations go into Loek’s selection of his players?

30:04 – The bidding process on players like Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hikaru Nakamura

33:25 – AD BREAK

34:04 – Magnus’s participation?

36:35 – Does the Global Chess League, operated by India, foreshadow Indian dominance on the chess organisation circuit?

40:46 – What does Loek bring to the table as a coach?

43:26 – Does Loek’s own playing strength and activity as a player help him as a coach?

45:35 – What were the crucial moments that contributed to Loek’s team’s victory this year?

47:24 – What did Loek do to make Wei Yi feel comfortable as part of the team?

49:36 – AD BREAK

50:25 – How does Loek see his future in coaching and beyond?

53:56 – Is it always a coach’s dream to work with young talent?

56:30 – Vladimir Kramnik’s controversial cheating allegations

1:05:40 – Outro

This week’s episode of the New In Chess Podcast features a narration from “The Essential Sosonko”, a collection of chess portraits based on personal stories authored by chess grandmaster Genna Sosonko. Subject of this week’s episode is Dutch grandmaster Max Euwe (1901-1981).

Machgielis “Max” Euwe was the fifth World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. After retiring as a player, he would later serve as FIDE president starting in 1970. In this capacity, he presided over the famous Fischer-Spassky of 1972 and had to navigate many other chess “situations” of the time, such as the defection of Viktor Korchnoi from the USSR and attempts by Soviet officials to remove him from power.

Genna, a fellow native of The Netherlands, met Max Euwe around the time of the 1972 World Championship match, and the two remained in touch until Euwe’s death in 1981. Over four decades later, Genna’s story paints a picture of Max Euwe as both a friend and a historical chess figure.